TEAMango won the Financial and Professional Services Start-Up of the Year, kindly sponsored by the Principality Building Society. We caught up with them after their win to find out a bit more:
1. How did it feel to win a Wales Start-Up-Award?
Absolutely fantastic! We've had a really great year and our whole team, which grew massively in that time, have all worked tirelessly to support us and our clients. We'd never have dreamed that we would come out winners, so it means a huge amount to everyone at TEAMango. And it really means a lot that our team are recognised in this way.
2. How did you find the experience of the Awards night?
It was a really great night. We're not ones for getting all dressed up so loved the casual feel, and the venue was excellent. We met a load of good friends from across Welsh business and met some fantastic new people too who are now part of our ever growing network! It was a tad nerve-racking leading up to our award being announced though ...!
3. How do you strive to make a difference in the Welsh business market?
Through a few ways really. We continue to employ more and more people ourselves as we grow, but for us, it's more about what we can do to help other businesses and people, and how we can improve collaboration.
We offer up as much time as possible to help others, be they in incubators or early stages of building a business, though doing workshops and talks, along with a lot of mentoring and coaching.
And given a lot of our clients and network are based outside of Wales, we do our bit to promote Wales as a destination to locate in.
There's such an untapped level of opportunity in Welsh business - we're doing well as a nation, but I think most people will admit that, collectively, we can do more over the coming years. That's what makes Wales such an exciting place to grow a business in.
4. What are your goals for the next 12 months?
Keep doing what we're doing and keep growing successfully and sustainably. We've put a lot of time and investment in to getting our business model right, and it's working so we'll keep at it. We do have a few other exciting opportunities planned for the year ahead but couldn't possibly say what they are just yet!
5. What is the biggest lesson you have learned in the first year of your start-up business?
Wow, that's a tough one! We always knew that running our own business would bring with it the need to learn and adapt, but we never appreciated just how many lessons and experienced there would be, good and bad.
The main thing for us though is staying true to both your principles and your plan. Provided your plan is right (there's no point in working hard on it if it's wrong after all), then regardless of the trials and tribulations, keep at it. It'll pay off eventually. But staying true to your principles is most important to us. There have been opportunities to do things that would've led to more short term financial wins, but they weren't right for us. The satisfaction you get from succeeding whilst staying true to yourselves cannot be beaten.
6. What one piece of advice would you give to any aspiring entrepreneurs?
Simple. Stop aspiring, and just do it. If you try and fail, at least you tried. And you can always try again. If you don't try though, you'll never truly know what you could've accomplished. If we can do it, you can.
